What is the history of Košice?

Košice was first mentioned in 1230 under the name Kassa. It has been part of various states including the Kingdom of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Slovakia. The city has changed names multiple times, including Košice (current), Kassa, and Kaschau. It was part of the Abaúj-Torna County and later Košice-okolie District. The city was also part of the Kassa electoral district until 1918 and the Military District of Kaschau from 1850 to 1860.

What are the official names and languages of Košice?

The current official name is Košice since 1945. Historical names include Kassa (used from 1938 to 1944) and Kaschau (pre-1867). The city's official website is available in Slovak, English, Hungarian, and German. The city also has a native label "Košice" with IPA pronunciation /ˈkɔʂitse.

What is the population of Košice?

As of 2025, the population is estimated at 222,286, with 115,997 males and 106,289 females. In 2024, the population was estimated at 223,678, and in 2019, it was 238,593. The 2021 census reported 229,040 residents, with 119,533 females and 109,507 males.

What are the key geographic and administrative details of Košice?

Košice is located in the Košice Region, which it has been the capital of since 1996. It is in the Košická kotlina and lies on the Hornád river. The city is divided into four administrative units: Košice I, II, III, and IV. The elevation ranges from 193 m to 850 m, with an average of 214 m above sea level.

What is the significance of Košice in cultural terms?

Košice was named European Capital of Culture in 2013. It has been featured in numerous encyclopedias and cultural databases, including the Encyclopædia Britannica, Treccani, and the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. The city also hosts several cultural institutions and has a rich history of multiculturalism.

What organizations or cities is it connected to?

Košice is twinned with several cities including Budapest, Saint Petersburg (until 2022), Verona, Wuppertal, and others. It is also connected to various cultural and administrative institutions such as the Mestské lesy Košice and City Greenery Administration in Košice.

What is the administrative structure of Košice?

The city is divided into four administrative units: Košice I, II, III, and IV. It is the capital of the Košice Region and was previously part of the Košice-okolie District. The city's leadership includes Mayor Jaroslav Polaček, who has been in office since 2018.

What is the significance of Košice's digital presence?

Košice maintains a strong digital presence with its official website, social media accounts, and YouTube channel. The city's YouTube channel has over 685,000 views as of December 2025. The official website is available in multiple languages, and the city has a strong online archive and digital engagement.

What are the key historical and cultural identifiers of Košice?

Košice has a rich multicultural history, with historical names including Košice, Kassa, and Kaschau. It has been part of various states including the Kingdom of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Slovakia. The city was named European Capital of Culture in 2013 and is featured in multiple encyclopedias and cultural databases.

Košice

city in Slovakia

Organization municipality_of_slovakia Q25409

Facts

36 properties

Instance of: municipality of Slovakia, big city, city^[7]^[8]
Award received: European Capital of Culture^[1]
Inception: 1230^[31]
Country: Kingdom of Hungary, Habsburg monarchy, Principality of Upper Hungary, Habsburg monarchy, Austrian Empire, Austria–Hungary, First Hungarian Republic, Kingdom of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia^[3]
Official website: www.kosice.sk^[34]
Coordinate location: 🗺️ 48.717°, 21.250°
Capital of: Košice Region, Košice-okolie District, Kassai járás, Kassa electoral district, Military District of Kaschau, Abaúj-Torna County
Annual number of weddings: +934
Area: 243.7 (242.3–243.7, n=3)
Coat of arms: Coat of arms of Košice^[27]
Contains the administrative territorial entity: Košice I, Košice II, Košice III, Košice IV^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]
Continent: Europe^[6]
Demonym: Košičan, Košičanka, kassai
Described by source: Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, Vlastivedný slovník obcí na Slovensku, The Nuttall Encyclopædia, National Encyclopedia of Uzbekistan^[42]^[43]^[44]^[45]
Different from: Koszyce
Elevation above sea level: +214
Head of government: Jaroslav Polaček, Richard Raši, František Knapík, Zdenko Trebuľa, Rudolf Schuster, Rudolf Bauer, Ján Kopnický^[5]
History of topic: history of Košice
Licence plate code: KE^[29]
Local dialing code: 055^[30]
Located in or next to body of water: Hornád^[4]
Located in the administrative territorial entity: Košice Region, Abaúj-Torna County, Abaúj county, Abaúj-Torna County^[2]
Located in/on physical feature: Košická kotlina^[32]
Native label: Košice

Show all 36 facts +12

Number of viewers/listeners: +685535
Official name: Košice, Kassa, Košice, Kassa, Kaschau, Kassa
On focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/5
Owner of: Lokomotíva Stadium, Športová hala Stará jazdiareň, Košice football arena, City Greenery Administration in Košice, Mestské lesy Košice, Bytový podnik mesta Košice
P14541: aZ0Lj
Phone number: +421-55^[41]
Population: 222k (222k–239k, n=5)^[35]^[36]^[37]^[38]^[39]
⚖ sources disagree Wikidata 238,593 · 229,040 · 235,160 · 223,678 · 222,286 GeoNames 225,044 edition 2026-09-26 · CC BY 4.0 ↗
Postal code: 040 00^[28]
Significant event: Košice - European Capital of Culture 2013^[33]
Time of earliest written record: 1230^[40]
Topic has template: Template:Košice
Twinned administrative body: Oradea, Niš, Miskolc, Bursa, Plovdiv, Budapest, Katowice, Krosno, Ostrava, Raahe, Rzeszów, Saint Petersburg, Uzhhorod, Verona, Vysoké Tatry, Wuppertal, Mobile, Buenos Aires, Lyon, Aksaray, Cottbus, Paphos, Kryvyi Rih^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16]^[17]^[18]^[19]^[20]^[21]^[22]^[23]^[24]^[25]^[26]

🏷️ Also known as

en Kassa en Kaschau en Kosice en Košice en Kascha ar كوشيتسه cs Kaschau cs Cassovia da Kosice da Cassovia da Kaschau de Kaschau de Kosice de Kascha de Kassa el Κόσιτσε el Κόζιτσε es Kaschau es Kassa fa کوشیتسه

🔖 Identifiers · 79

VIAF cluster ID: 267768020
Library of Congress authority ID: n80158520
GND ID: 1028389-4
Image (Wikimedia Commons): Cathedral of St. Elizabeth in Košice.jpg ↗
ArchINFORM location ID: 7487
BBC Things ID: 66520909-da7a-454a-908f-9f5658776b31
BHCL UUID: 2d645246-d8bd-4249-b9cc-088227d0179a, 0feeb76a-308e-48f8-9e17-d8db3ae691f8, 329d8eff-b7cf-4b44-8285-798c8061ef27
Bibliothèque nationale de France ID: 15380147z
Curlie ID: Regional/Europe/Slovakia/Localities/Kosice/
De Agostini ID: Košice+(città)
Dewey Decimal Classification: 2--43735
EU Knowledge Graph item ID: Upper Lusatia

Show all 79 identifiers +67

Early Modern Letters Online location ID: 61055e03-a098-4abe-a5ae-22bf178d31eb
Email address: mailto:kontakt@kosice.sk
Enciclopedia dell'Arte Medievale ID: kosice
Encyclopedia of China (Third Edition) ID: 381531
Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine ID: 1726
Encyclopædia Britannica Online ID: place/Kosice
Encyclopædia Universalis ID: kosice
FAST ID: 1211032
Facebook location ID: 110032539025972
Facebook username: kosiceofficial
FactGrid item ID: Rob Schroeder
Freebase ID: /m/01t4hj
GNS Unique Feature ID: -843247
GeoNames ID: 724443
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names ID: 7011529
GitHub topic: kosice
Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana ID: kosice
Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana ID (former scheme): 0035923
Great Norwegian Encyclopedia ID: Košice
Great Russian Encyclopedia Online ID (2017): 2104940, 5617872
Great Russian Encyclopedia portal ID: koshitse-c8ffcc
Grove Art Online ID: T047713
Hrvatska enciklopedija ID: 33423
Image Archive, Herder Institute: Košice
Instagram username: kosice_official
Klexikon article ID: Košice
Kulturenvanteri taxonomy ID: 2733
LAU: SK599981
Lex ID: Košice
Mapcarta ID: Košice
Mapy.com ID: osm&id=1015718765
Museum-digital place ID: 37572
MusicBrainz area ID: f37f3392-51d6-489e-9962-9babbe5e80c7
Münzkabinett ID: location/2116
NE.se ID: kosice
NL CR AUT ID: ge129662
NSK (VIAF) ID: 000683240
NSK ID: 981005659794809366
National Library of Israel J9U ID: 987007564196305171
OSM Name Suggestion Index ID: mestokosice-c44728, mestokosice-cad5fa, mestokosice-3eae11
Online PWN Encyclopedia ID: 3926378
OpenStreetMap node ID: 530544488
OpenStreetMap relation ID: 1690324
Provenio UUID: 65dc444d-6f0b-40bc-a377-ed9f83cbfde0
Quora topic ID: Kosice-Slovakia
RKD thesaurus ID: 40184
Reddit topic ID: košice
SBN place ID: LIAL001665
SK cinema authority ID: 0007086
SNARC ID: 5th century
SNK ID: 90989
SPAP ID: p/bbf428f2-3193-4a2e-a8d7-faecf3524c8e
SVKKL authority ID: g0001849-Kosice-Slovensko
Subreddit: Kosice
Topic's main Wikimedia portal: Portal:Košice
Topic's main category: Category:Košice
Treccani ID: kosice
Treccani's Enciclopedia Italiana ID: kosice
UN/LOCODE: SKKSC
Urban Electric Transit city ID: 209
Who's on First ID: 101752055
WikiKids ID: Košice_(Slowakije)
WorldCat Entities ID: E39PBJf4d8Krj7MKTbWbMy4THC
YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe ID: Kosice
Yale LUX ID: place/42231be6-34e8-4aca-b80f-98c6e98ca621
YouTube channel ID: UCtc8oWM1AwZqcpIca5qSAjA
YouTube handle: kosiceofficial

Report an error or request removal Lineage (PROV-JSON)

🔗 Connections

People born here 188

Martina Hingis, Sándor Márai, Ferenc Szálasi, Rudolf Schuster, Kamila Beregszásziová, Radoslav Zabavník, Alex Král, Anna Karolína Schmiedlová +180 more

Contained subdivisions 86

Košice I, Košice II, Košice III, Košice IV, Košice International Airport, Cathedral of St. Elizabeth, Luník IX, Steel Aréna +78 more

People who died here 44

Georg Joachim Rheticus, Stephen Bocskai, Marko Krizin, Jaroslav Pollák, Melchior Grodziecki, Stephen Pongracz, Anton Flešár, Jozef Bomba +36 more

← Place of publication 29

Privilege of Koszyce, Korzár, Kassa-Eperjes Review, Das Kaschauer Kundschaftsblatt, Das oberungarische illustrierte Wochenblatt, Der Bote von und für Ungarn, Der freie Bürger, Der Wanderlehrer +21 more

Twinned administrative body 23

Buenos Aires, Saint Petersburg, Budapest, Lyon, Katowice, Verona, Bursa, Plovdiv +15 more

← Twinned administrative body 23

Buenos Aires, Saint Petersburg, Budapest, Lyon, Katowice, Verona, Bursa, Plovdiv +15 more

← Headquarters location 22

FC VSS Košice, FC Košice, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, HC Košice, FC Lokomotíva Košice, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Košice, Technical University of Košice, Eparchy of Košice +14 more

Located in this place 14

2011 IIHF World Championship, East Slovak Museum, Kassa attack, 1997 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, Golden treasure of Košice, Košice Peace Marathon, Martyrs of Košice, 2011 Men's European Volleyball League +6 more

← Category combines topics 12

Category:People from Košice, Category:Buildings and structures in Košice, Category:Births in Košice, Category:Sport in Košice, Category:Deaths in Košice, Category:Culture in Košice, Category:Churches in Košice, Category:Religion in Košice +4 more

Country 9

Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, Austria–Hungary, Austrian Empire, Habsburg monarchy, Kingdom of Hungary, Kingdom of Hungary, First Hungarian Republic +1 more

← Capital 7

Košice Region, Košice-okolie District, Principality of Upper Hungary, Abaúj-Torna County, Abaúj county, Eastern Slovakia, Slovak People's Republic

Residents 5

Martina Hingis, Viktória Hrunčáková, Jana Čepelová, Štefan Harabin, Boris Makoev

← Work location 5

Gyula Benczúr, Juraj Červenák, Lajos Csordák, Ján Abrahamffy, Ľudovít Oelschläger

Contains the administrative territorial entity 4

Košice I, Košice II, Košice III, Košice IV

Capital of 3

Košice Region, Košice-okolie District, Abaúj-Torna County

Described by source 3

Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, National Encyclopedia of Uzbekistan, The Nuttall Encyclopædia

Instance of 3

city, big city, municipality of Slovakia

Located in the administrative territorial entity 3

Košice Region, Abaúj-Torna County, Abaúj county

Located in time zone 3

UTC+01:00, UTC+02:00, Central European Time

← Terminus location 3

European route E71, European route E571, Košice-Vienna broad gauge line

Head of government 2

Rudolf Schuster, Richard Raši

Named after 2

Košice International Airport, The price of the city of Košice

Owned entities 2

Košice football arena, Lokomotíva Stadium

Owner of 2

Košice football arena, Lokomotíva Stadium

← Place of burial 2

Francis I Rákóczi, Zsófia Báthory

Award received 1

European Capital of Culture

Category for people born here 1

Category:Births in Košice

Category for people who died here 1

Category:Deaths in Košice

Category of associated people 1

Category:People from Košice

Coat of arms 1

Coat of arms of Košice

Continent 1

Europe

Different from 1

Koszyce

EU Knowledge Graph item ID 1

Upper Lusatia

FactGrid item ID 1

Rob Schroeder

Image Archive, Herder Institute 1

Košice

Located in or next to body of water 1

Hornád

Located in/on physical feature 1

Košická kotlina

On focus list of Wikimedia project 1

Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/5

SNARC ID 1

5th century

Topic's main category 1

Category:Košice

← Applies to jurisdiction 1

Coat of arms of Košice

← Category's main topic 1

Category:Košice

← Conferred by 1

Pro Urbe Award

← Connects with 1

European route E50

← Different from 1

Koszyce

← Image Archive, Herder Institute 1

Košice

← Location of formation 1

No Name

← Operating area 1

Dopravný podnik mesta Košice

← Operator 1

Košice football arena

← Place served by transport hub 1

Košice International Airport

← Primary destinations 1

European route E58

← Start point 1

2021 Okolo Slovenska

Press Enter · cited answer in seconds

Košice is a city in the Košice Region of Slovakia^[1]. It was established in 1230^[2]. The city has a population of 222,000 as of 2025. Košice covers an area of 242.3 square kilometers^[1]^[3] and sits at an elevation of 214 meters.

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Brands and Namesakes

Things named for Košice include Košice International Airport^[46], an international airport^[47], in Slovakia^[48], founded in 1906^[49] and The price of the city of Košice^[50], an award^[51], in Slovakia^[52], founded in 1994^[53].

Why It Matters

Entities named for Košice include Košice International Airport^[46], an international airport^[47], in Slovakia^[48], founded in 1906^[49] and The price of the city of Košice^[50], an award^[51], in Slovakia^[52], founded in 1994^[53].

FAQs

What awards did Košice receive?

Honors received include European Capital of Culture^[1].

Košice

Facts

Body

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Why It Matters

FAQs

What awards did Košice receive?

References

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Košice

Facts

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Why It Matters

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What awards did Košice receive?

Related Entities

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